Take Pride in Your Leadership

In Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, Howard Gardner (yes, the author of Multiple Intelligences) offers this description of an effective leader:

"A leader is likely to achieve success only if she can construct and convincingly communicate a clear and persuasive story; appreciate the nature of the audience, including its changeable features; invest her own energy in the building and maintenance of an organization; embody in her own life the principal contours of the story; either provide direct leadership or find a way to achieve influence through indirect means; and finally, find a way to understand and make use of, without being overwhelmed by, increasing technical expertise."

Whether you exercise leadership in an early childhood program, as an advocate or public official, in a training or research institution, or in an organization that supports the field in other ways, you should take great pride in your work if you exhibit the features described by Gardner. And, if you do, don't be shy — we want our children to have healthy self-images, so we should model this behavior! Step forward to be recognized in the Exchange Leadership Initiative as a Master Leader.

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